How to deal with 1-star reviews ☢️🚨 on Google Business

Building The Apple Yard

This is one in a series of our personal experiences of launching a small business, cataloguing our successes and failures. We find it helpful to self-reflect and hopefully you might learn a thing or two!

1. Leave a positive owner's response as soon as possible2. If known, contact the reviewer to find a solution3. Generate reviews from previous clients's projects not yet reviewed4. Edit your owner's response as necessary5. Evaluate where you can improve and implement solutions in your processes6. Don't take it to heart; move on quickly

1. Respond directly and positively as soon as possible

Reviews and feedback are on full display these days, and the public knows it

Review platforms (like Google, Trustpilot, Facebook) are ways to get the attention of business owners, or attack them, so be attentive

Context is key, so you need to get across your message as quickly as possible to provide balance to the issue

Offer an olive branch and demonstrate your willingness to make things right

If you know the reviewer personally, take the issue offline, ideally through a phone call; even better, in person

Whatever you do, be polite and professional, as your character and company are in the firing line

There is nothing you can do about anonymous reviews or trolls; see above and don't get into a flame war

2. Generate positive reviews from previous clients quickly

Try to dilute and mitigate the negative affect of your one star review with positive ones

Make a list of previous clients for whom you have completed projects recently

If there are some who have not yet reviewed your work, get in contact, ideally by phone

Why?
Automated review systems are not as effective, simply because they are not personal and can feel spammy. A call acts like a tap on the shoulder, so is more likely to elicit a response

Tactics for generating quality reviews from previous clients:

In your call, say that you are following up some jobs; ask whether your client would like to leave you some feedback

Follow up by e-mail with a pre-made template that has a very clear link to your review area; we use Google Business for all our reviews

We use a direct link that opens up a browser window with the review form all ready to go, specifically relating to The Apple Yard